China is facing both external challenges which cannot be solved in a short time, including the Diaoyu Islands dispute and South China Sea issue, and such internal problems as economic slowdown with the growth rate dropping below 8 percent in the second quarter. Even Premier Wen Jiabao frankly said that the country’s economic woes are likely to continue for some time. Under such circumstances, some people voice pessimistic opinions, like “China has had a hard time lately.”

However, in fact, China has always been experiencing hardships as a developing country with a large population. Compared with the hardest time in the history, China should be fully confident of resolving current problems.

Indeed, there are many tough diplomatic troubles, such as the Diaoyu Islands dispute, South China Sea issue and the U.S. rebalancing strategy to restrict China. Take frequent military drills in the Asia-Pacific region for example, China is either portrayed as a “hegemony seeker” if it participates in them, or criticized for its absence if not. Even in the U.S. presidential race, candidates tend to use China as a political tactic to attack their opponents.

China is really faced with economic problems. The European debt crisis leads to the decline of China’s export. In the second quarter of 2012, China’s economic growth rate fell to record low of the recent three years. Although China needed the world more in the past, nowadays the world needs China more.

Recently, many experts in the world pointed out that China’s economic growth will be accelerated in the second half of 2012 due to a series of stimulus measures adopted by Chinese government. The world saw the strength and willpower of China after it had overcome all sorts of difficulties. Therefore, China should be confident in weathering through these current difficulties as before.

Different from those of the past, the problems China is facing have upgraded to a new level. China’s past difficulty was how to seek “room of development” while now it is faced with the “trouble of development”. Why does the United States always target at China in diplomacy? All the countries know exactly the reason is that China is becoming more and more powerful, only next to America.

The past difficulty was how to meet the basic requirements of food and clothing but now China is troubled with how to keep healthy. China pursued the rapid development of national economy in the past but now it pays attention to both speed and quality with more emphasis on quality.

Undoubtedly, China has difficulties in many aspects, not limited to diplomacy and economy. The path from large country to great power will certainly be full of ups and downs.

Since China must move forward, it will not be afraid of difficulties. The country will become more mature and powerful after experiencing numerous difficulties. Now that China has solved big problems, it will not be afraid of small ones. In a word, although China is suffering difficulties, it is still confident of solving them well.

Author: Zheng Kai